Election Integrity Crisis in Chester County: What You Need to Know

And What You Can Do About It

Op-Ed

By the Editorial Team at KSQAreaGOP.com

The November 4, 2025 election in Chester County was marked by significant administrative failures that have raised serious questions about the integrity of our elections. The Republican Committee of Chester County (RCCC) has detailed these concerns in a comprehensive letter to the Chester County Board of Elections (BOE), and Area 17 residents deserve to understand what happened and how we can demand accountability.

Click to Get the RCCC Letter to the BOE

The November 4 Poll Book Failure

On Election Day, a so-called clerical error by Chester County caused all 230 precincts to use incorrect poll books, creating widespread chaos across Chester County. The Board of Elections initially claimed the problem affected only Independents, Libertarians, and non-affiliated voters [a poulation of about 75,000 voters out of a countywide total of 386,000], whose names were not listed in poll books that day. This "glitch" forced tens of thousands of eligible Americans to either jump through provisional ballot hoops to vote or, in some cases, simply walk away. Essentially, 20% of the electorate was disenfranchised when they went to vote that day. Worse, only about 12,400 provisional ballots (only 16.5% of the disenfranchised 75,000 voters) were completed.

This reality is troubling. Every voter in Chester County (about 386,000) has lost (or should lose) confidence in the Board of Elections' ability to conduct elections lawfully and correctly.

Click to Get the RCCC Letter to the BOE

The RCCC letter details the following missteps by the BOE:

👉 Inadequate Guidance to Election Officials

Judges of Elections were not given clear direction on standard procedures. Instructions to issue provisional ballots didn't arrive until 7:59 a.m.—nearly an hour after polls opened. Many precincts never received the corrected guidance and continued following the initial erroneous instructions, allowing unregistered voters to cast regular ballots instead of provisional ones.

👉 Inconsistent Communications

The chaos was compounded by broken communication channels. Election officials couldn't reach Voter Services to ask critical questions. The department's phone system had prompts that were never deactivated and calls were programmed to hang up after a set period of time. Many election officials didn't receive text messages or Chesco Alerts throughout Election Day.

👉 Execution Failures

The result was staggering: over 12,400 provisional ballots were cast, though the precise count remains unknown. Once these ballots were cast without proper verification procedures, there was no way to determine the validity of the ballot or confirm the voter's identity.

👉 Confused Instructions Throughout the Day

When the Chester County Court extended voting hours to 10 p.m., the initial communication from Voter Services failed to accurately reflect the court's directive. Critical details—including that all voters would need to vote provisionally and that ballots needed to be segregated—were missing. Further confusion arose when election officials received contradictory instructions about when to shut down voting machines, causing some precincts to display election result tapes prematurely.

A Systemic Pattern of Failure

This wasn't an isolated mistake. The Republican Committee of Chester County has warned the Board of Elections about these exact types of problems repeatedly over the past two years. Yet nothing has been done to address them.

👉 Staffing and Leadership Issues

The Voter Services department is in crisis. Thirty-five employees have departed since the current director took office, with eight leaving since May alone. The department now reports to a "Chief Experience Officer" with no election experience. The individual overseeing voting machines comes from a background in marketing Democratic campaigns in Philadelphia—hardly the qualifications needed for election administration.

👉 Legal Missteps

The Board has relied on legal advice from the County Solicitor's Office that has proven inconsistent and often mistaken. For example, election officials were incorrectly told that hand-counting ballots violated the Election Code and the Pennsylvania Constitution. That erroneous advice was retracted, but many election officials never received the correction.

👉 Emergency Communication Failures

Following the 2024 bomb scare, the Republican Committee warned that no reliable system existed to communicate with precincts during emergencies. Election officials learned about the bomb scare from the media rather than from county officials. The Board denied a problem existed and took no corrective action. On Election Day, the failure was repeated: many Judges of Elections couldn't reach Voter Services, forcing the Republican Party's solicitor to relay instructions between County officials and poll workers throughout the day.

👉 Inadequate Appointments

The Board uses a problematic 5-day emergency appointment process to fill election board vacancies by passing a resolution the Friday before each election. The resolution isn't provided to the public or the RCCC until 24 hours before the Friday meeting, preventing scrutiny. Previously discovered discrepancies have included unappointed individuals being paid, duplicate payments, and vacancies not being disclosed. This creates an election board with inexperienced, poorly trained officials. Many poll workers have stated they will not return after the disarray of November 4.

Accountability and Transparency Must Follow

The Board of Elections announced it would hire an "independent party" to investigate the poll book error. However, serious questions remain unanswered:

• Who will conduct the investigation?

• What qualifications and independence will they possess?

• Will the investigation be confined only to the poll book error, or will it address the systemic failures documented in this letter?

• Will the process be transparent, with access to records and participation from stakeholders like the RCCC?

The Republican Committee of Chester County has made clear that only through transparency, accountability, and meaningful reform can the Board of Elections begin to rebuild the trust that has been so gravely eroded.

What You Can Do: Attend the Board of Elections Meeting on December 5th

Your voice matters. The Board of Elections will be holding a critical meeting where residents can make their concerns known:

• Friday, December 5, 2025 — 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Meeting Details and Zoom Link

You can attend in person or via Zoom. If you attend in person, we encourage you to stay for the entire meeting to demonstrate the community's commitment to election integrity.

Election Integrity Is Democracy's Foundation

What happened on November 4 was unacceptable. But more troubling is that the Board of Elections has been warned about these systemic problems for two years and has taken no meaningful corrective action. Instead, the Board has been dismissive and, according to the RCCC, retaliatory toward those who have raised legitimate concerns.

Election integrity is not a partisan issue—it's a fundamental requirement for our democracy. Whether you're a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, you should be concerned when our election officials lack the competence, training, and systems necessary to run a fair election.

Residents of Kennett Square, Kennett Township and New Garden Township deserve better. Residents of Chester County deserve better. We deserve election officials who are properly trained, systems that work reliably, and leadership committed to transparency and accountability. If you care about these principles, we urge you to attend the Board of Elections meeting on December 5th and make your voice heard.

Democracy depends on it.

KSQAreaGOP.com is the voice of the Kennett Square, New Garden Township, and Kennett Township Republican communities in Chester County. Stay tuned for updates on our election integrity efforts.